METHOD

Step 1

Add the chicken, oil and Moroccan seasoning in a large bowl and season.

Step 2

Heat a barbecue grill or chargrill on medium-high. Cook the chicken for 3-4 mins each side or until golden brown and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil. Set aside for 5 mins to rest.

Step 3

Meanwhile, process half the mint in a food processor until finely chopped. Add half the yoghurt and process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the remaining yoghurt. Season.

Step 4

Arrange the chicken, watermelon, radish, cucumber, onion, coriander and remaining mint on a serving platter. Serve with the yoghurt mixture and pistachios, if desired.

With the holiday season fast approaching you may sometimes find it hard to get to the gym.Here is a 45min full body workout you can do anywhere so you now have NO excuses not to train when you are away.

Warm up – will take 10 min

5 min jog, then

2 sets of

20 walking lunges

20 push ups

20m bear crawl forward

20m bear crawl backwards

Mobility – Hold each stretch for 30-40 sec each, do 2 rounds.

Deep squat hold (pushing hips in to floor, keep back straight and chin up, place hands on feet)

Our beautiful weather enables us to spend a lot of time in the great outdoors. Hiking is a wonderful way to spend your weekend exploring our tracks and getting out in nature. Hiking requires good cardiovascular endurance and upper and lower body strength and endurance .

It’s important to train your quadriceps for descents, your hips for supporting pack weight over unstable surfaces, your shoulders, upper back, and trapezius for pack carrying and the lower back, obliques, and abdominals for transferring power from the legs into forward motion.

Try and get to 2 metabolic conditioning classes per week and perform each weight session once every 4 days.

Week 1-2, 3 Sets x 15 Reps

Week 3-4, 3 Sets x 12 Reps

Week 5-6, 3 Sets x 10 Reps

Week 7-8, 3 Sets x 8 Reps

Week 9-10, 3 Sets x 20 Reps (Decrease weight for these weeks as reps have increased to shock the body)

New Year, new me. This year’s going to be different, I’m going to get so fit this year!!

Sound familiar?

We’ve all made a list of New Year resolutions with great intentions to tick them off one by one and have the greatest year yet. Then life gets in the way, our motivation dwindles, boredom sets in, sugar cravings take over and as time passes our New Year resolutions just don’t seem that important anymore.

Your health, fitness and wellbeing should be your number one priority, other than family of course! We all know the positive effects good health has on our family life, careers and relationships – this is why each year we promise ourselves we will make positive changes. The trick is how to make change stick!

2016 can be the year to break the cycle, you’ll have a much better chance of sticking to your resolutions if you follow these 10 tips.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

– It’s not about sitting there on January 1 and writing a list of goals you think are important to you. Think hard about these goals well before December 31, if the goals are important to you you’ll find the time to make this list. Also plan how you intend to make those goals happen, how you will track your progress, what to do when you reach your goals and what to do if you don’t.

Set small achievable goals

– The quickest way to break your New Year resolutions is to make your goals to difficult. Divide big goals in to bit size chunks that are attainable, this will help keep you motivated as you begin to tick them off. Make sure you track your progress so you can see your improvements.

Find a good training partner

– Having someone who is counting on you to get to the gym or park session with will help keep you motivated to finish your session. Training partners not only make training fun but they also ensure you have someone to compete with and holds you accountable.

Group fitness classes

– Training in a group environment has been proven to speed up results and make participants work harder. Team environments not only allow you to compete with your fellow gym goers but will help keep you motivated by pushing you harder than training by yourself. It also helps you schedule a busy week and takes the stress away from having to think about developing your own fitness program.

If your not assessing your just guessing

– Seek the aid of a professional and document your progress. I suggest getting an Inbody scan done every 6-8 weeks which will measure your body fat mass and lean muscle so you can see the numbers for yourself. There is no better motivation than seeing your lean muscle increasing and your body fat mass decreasing.

Get your friends involved

– Talk to your friends about what you plan on achieving and get them involved anyway you can. Having friends to bounce off and help keep you on track when you feel like swaying will be a massive help in keeping you on the path to achieving your goals. You may even find you begin to motivate them!

Reward your hard work

– Health, fitness and wellbeing is all about balance. It’s very important to celebrate the little wins along the way and reward yourself with what you enjoy such as a weekend away, a nice dinner out, a new Playstation game or new shoes!! When it comes to nutrition don’t be afraid to have a ‘cheat meal’ as a reward, this will not only keep you sane but it will also make you work harder during the week if you know on the weekend you get to indulge a little. Now I’m not saying you can eat a whole block of chocolate of a bucket of chicken but please do reward yourself for your hard work and dedication.

Be adventurous

– We all get bored with our surroundings so it is very important to spice things up when it comes to exercise. Get outdoors as much as you can do some hiking, swimming, bike riding, hill runs anything you can that gets you moving and enjoying exercise.

Do not give up, EVER!

– Research shows it takes around 3 weeks for a habit to form and nearly 6 months for it to be apart of you. So stick it out! Your goals will not happen overnight but they will come with hard work and dedication.

Revisit your goals regularly

– As the year goes on and those resolutions are being ticked off some goals may not seem as important or may even change and that is OK. Tweak those goals as they arise. You may have reached that goal of losing 5 kgs and now its time to get strong. Plateaus will occur if things aren’t spiced up so keep things fresh.

For more advice on setting, planning and achieving your goals ask the professionals at Think 24hr Fitness. We’re passionate about improving your health and fitness and giving you the tools to create lasting change.